


On why Remus Lupin never let his friends see him sleep

by WanderingBandurria



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Banter, Fluff and Humor, Get Together, Hogwarts Fifth Year, Love Confessions, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Mutual Pining, One Shot, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, Remus Lupin Needs a Hug, Sharing a Bed, Swearing, Underage Kissing, unintended love confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderingBandurria/pseuds/WanderingBandurria
Summary: Sirius just thought it was crazy that, since the first day at Hogwarts, Remus had slept with his bed curtains sealed. In fifth year, he and the Marauders discover why.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 15
Kudos: 220





	On why Remus Lupin never let his friends see him sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So this was supposed to be a small ficlet. As usual, it got a bit out of control, so have a one shot with bed sharing and feelings!
> 
> Thanks to my beta, LikeABellThroughTheNight, who's solely responsible for this being comprehensible, because as usual, when writing in past tense, I struggle. Even with her help, I still make some mistakes and I love getting feedback about my writing, so anything that you spot that sounds weird or doesn't make sense, please let me know in the comments! I'm here to improve my English as much as to write these boys falling in love over and over again.
> 
> Also many thanks to stars-and-wolves on Tumblr for the prompt! this helped me a lot to get back on track with fluff, which I needed after the amount of Hurt/Comfort I've been writing.
> 
> So I hope you guys like it! I had a blast writing this.

\---

Remus never let his roommates see him sleep. From the first night at Hogwarts he had kept his curtains shut with spells, leaving the other eleven-years-old in awe with the displays of magic. After the initial shock, the boys tried to ask him about why he did that, but Remus avoided giving a clear explanation. With time, James, Peter and Sirius just took the shut curtains in stride as part of their friend’s personality.

"Unless I'm unconscious and you are trying to bring me back to life, please leave me alone while I sleep. I think it's creepy when people watch others sleep, that’s all," Remus had said in the end with a shrug when asked for the hundredth time by a curious twelve-year-old James Potter. That was the most that any of them had gotten out of him about the topic.

After Second year, with the Marauders knowing about Remus' lycanthropy, they were allowed to visit him at the hospital wing, but only after they promised to wait outside until Pomfrey was sure that Remus was awake. She would do anything for him, and Remus' request to not let his friends in until he was up was by far one of the least odd things she had been asked to do by the Gryffindor boys.

When they got to their teenage years and there weren’t many secrets left between the four of them, James, Sirius and Peter would tease Remus about the ever-shut-curtains from time to time. Remus would just smirk and answer something in the vein of “wouldn’t you like to know” at the implications that he engaged in very _impure, un-prefect-ly_ activities in the solitude of his four-poster bed.

So they just joked for a bit, laughed it off, and continued with their lives.

Still, Sirius didn't like this quirk of Remus too much. He could understand the need for privacy, having grown up in a house where personal issues were treated with complete disregard of the person, but the fact that Remus didn’t allow them to see him sleep meant that they could barely talk with him on the days after the full moon, where he divided his free time between catching up with assignments, eating, and sleeping. Moreover, Sirius hated to see him struggling to stay awake, completely exhausted and sometimes heavily injured on the mornings of the full moon while he waited for Pomfrey, because his friends were still there, hidden under the invisibility cloak. 

(Because of this, Sirius was trying really hard to perfect the use of some very simple spells while still in his Animagus form, so that they could leave the shack before Pomfrey arrived without setting off the wards. He had studied them, and he was _most certain_ that they detected human magic, so _animal magic_ should go unperceived.)

Still, secrecy was part of who Remus was, and Sirius knew he just had to deal with it. Remus was a private person, not too touchy-feely, and he seemed to prefer casual shoulder bumps to hugs - at least from Sirius, and it wouldn’t do any good for him to get bitter about the fact that Remus didn’t seem to dislike James’, Peter’s or even Evans’ hugs, nor go all stiff as he did when Sirius put his arms around him.

So when Remus entered the dormitory the afternoon after the full moon of November 1975 looking absolutely exhausted, Sirius stayed quiet, assuming that Remus was going to walk to his four-poster bed, mumble “good night,” and shut his curtains, and that would be all that Sirius got to see of him that day. 

Nothing would have him prepared for what happened next, even as he saw it all unravel in front of his eyes.

Walking like a zombie, Remus moved towards Sirius’ bed, and let himself fall onto the covers beside him, pushing his face against the pillow.

That had never happened before - Remus coming to hang out with him on his bed. Sirius remained still, the book he had been reading opened against his knees, his heart beating fast.

“I’m so fucking tired,” Remus mumbled, curving his spine and raising his upper back to stretch like a cat, sinking his head further into the pillow with a groan.

“I wonder why,” Sirius tried to joke - to act like this was _normal_ \- Remus coming into Sirius’ personal space willingly was just _normal_. “Why don’t you take the rest of the night off, Moony, and just - as outrageous as this might sound - sleep?”

“I still have an essay to finish,” Remus said, turning his head and cracking his neck while he sighed. His eyes were closed as one of his hands came up to mess with the hair at his nape. “I’m gonna fail all my OWLS,” he added, toeing his shoes off. They fell to the ground before Remus wiggled his socked feet under the blanket on the bed. 

Sirius couldn’t believe his eyes - how natural this all seemed to Remus, how at ease he looked on Sirius’ bed, even with all his exhaustion.

“You won’t fail anything, Remus,” Sirius said with a smile, trying his best to keep up the act that Remus being here _wasn’t_ a big deal. “C’mon mate, time to sleep for you.”

“Too tired to go to my bed,” Remus mumbled again, sounding like he was already half-asleep. “I’m staying here,” he added like he was ready to fight Sirius for it. 

Like Sirius would _ever_ kick him out from anywhere. 

“Alright,” Sirius agreed, his heart beating fast. “But so am I, since this is my bed.”

“Wonderful,” Remus muttered, barely audible. “Love you, Padfoot.”

Sirius’ heart stopped. 

“Love you too, Moony,” and because _all of this was very casual, very unimportant_ , he set the book on his nightstand, took Remus’ wand from his trousers’ pocket, and lounged back down onto the bed, _not stiffly, not at all_ , because it was _his_ bed and of course he didn’t care if his arm was merely an inch from Remus’.

_Yeah._ He’d be lucky to get any sleep at all.

\---

Sirius woke up in the middle of the night with a start. He wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep, nor what time it was, but he could hear the soft snores of Peter and James, so it was probably pretty late.

“No, no - leave it,” came a loud voice from his side.

He blinked quickly a couple of times, and the memory of the evening came back to him - Remus flopping down on his bed, staying there to sleep. His neck hurt like hell after staying in the same position for hours, but he managed to look to the boy by his side with only a wince at the shot of pain.

“Paaaaaaaadfoot,” Remus complained suddenly, as he turned onto his side, coming to face Sirius. In the dark, Sirius could barely see that his eyes were still closed, even with their noses just a couple of inches from each other. “Don’t slobber on my face!”

“Is that Moony?” James’ voice made Sirius jump in his place and sit up.

“Yeah, it is,” he answered as hushedly as he could.

“Ah, yeah, no,” Remus kept going, talking like he was in the middle of the great hall, almost yelling to be heard. He suddenly laughed. “Of course I love you, you idiot.”

“Is he sleeping in your bed?” James asked, sounding a bit amused. “Agh, can you silence him? You can close the curtains and cast a silencing spell so we can sleep, right?” James added as Remus laughed again.

“Mh, no, don’t be daft. You always have my attention, Sirius. How could you not? With your hair, your eyes, your mouth…”

Sirius felt his face getting very warm, and James was suddenly laughing muffled against his pillow or his hand, Sirius couldn’t tell in the dark.

“Oh fuck. Moony talks in his sleep. Maybe don’t close the curtains yet, I wanna -”

“Your neck, your shoulders, your chest, your stomach,” Remus kept enumerating before sighing and mumbling, “those hip bones...”

“GOOD NIGHT,” Sirius almost yelled over James’ laughs. He grabbed his wand from his nightstand, closed the curtains and cast a silencing spell. “Moony,” he then said softly, trying to shake his friend’s shoulder. “Moony, c’mon, wake up.”

“Mh?” Remus said, opening his eyes and blinking a couple of times.

“Moony, you are talking in your sleep,” Sirius added, feeling a bit dumb for stating the obvious.

“Mhm,” he answered, closing his eyes again. “Shh, back to sleep,” and Remus turned on the bed before starting to breathe deeply again.

After a few minutes, Sirius lay back down on the bed, his heart beating fast as he resolutely _didn’t_ think about Remus’ sleepy words about him.

\---

“Fuck,” was the first thing that Sirius heard the next morning. Then came some shifting and ruffling from his side, followed by a loud _thud_.

_Oh no. Remus is not escaping from this,_ he thought, taking his wand and opening the curtains to look at his friend, still crouched on the floor, trying to get back on his feet after falling from the bed in his haste.

“Hey, Moony,” he greeted, as cheerfully as he could with barely a couple hours of sleep and his heart feeling like a big mess.

“Ah, Sirius. I’m sorry for falling asleep in your bed. You should make me go back to mine next time, I, um, ah…”

“No way I’m sending you back to your bed ever again,” he said, smiling brightly, as Remus flushed a bit. “It was too good to hear you talk in your sleep,” and he could feel his heartbeat in his ears now.

“Fuck,” Remus said again, sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, passing a hand over his face. “What did I say?”

Sirius opened his mouth, but Peter was the one answering.

“A hella lot of nonsense about Padfoot, that’s what you said,” he mumbled gruffly, as he and James passed by their side.

“We are going for breakfast. You two - you better talk,” James added, before closing the door.

“Um,” Remus started. Sirius could almost see his brain working to come with an excuse. 

That wouldn’t do.

“You told me you loved me last night,” he blurted out, and Remus paled a bit. “Did you mean it?”

“Ah. Of course, Padfoot, you are my friend and…” Remus said, smiling weakly.

“I fancy the hell out of you, Remus, so don’t give me that crap. You want to know what I answered to you?” he said going all in, sitting on the edge of the bed, resting his elbows on his knees to put his face closer to Remus.

“You… what?” Remus gaped at him, searching Sirius’ face for any trace of humour.

“I fancy you.” He repeated, feeling his mouth dry, so he tried to swallow. “Quite a lot, actually. And last night - I told you I love you too. So now, would you just… tell me if you like me back?” he added quietly, looking intently into Remus’ eyes, who just opened and closed his mouth for a couple of seconds.

“You - you mean it? You like me? You are not joking?” Remus asked, looking up at him from the floor, doubt all across his face.

Sirius just opened his palms to the sky and huffed.

“Fucking hell, Remus,” he said, standing up, passing a hand over his hair. “Yes, I mean it, of course I do. You’re killing me here though. Would you just reject me already, if -?” but just before he could go on and pull all his hair off his head, Remus came to stand in front of him, taking his wrists to pull his hands away from his head.

“Of course I fucking fancy you, Sirius, how can you think I don’t? Based on what I heard about last night, I pretty much yelled it for anyone to hear,” he said, smiling brightly and cheekily, before squeezing Sirius’ wrists again. “Now, may I kiss you?” and Sirius snorted at that - not at the question, but at the change of Remus’ demeanour. He looked like this wasn’t a big deal, like these were the most natural things to say, and like he hadn’t been panicking just mere twenty seconds ago.

So of course, Sirius leaned forward and mumbled against his lips, “Only if you tell me why do you like my hip bones so much,” before catching Remus’ lips between his, even as Remus spluttered and flushed. 

“You can be such an ass,” Remus said against his mouth, smiling, and Sirius smiled back, nodding before kissing him again.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this! The prompt was "wolfstar babies "very platonically" cuddling the night after the full moon and Remus sleepily tells Sirius he loves him". There wasn't any cuddling here, but I stil hope it delivered!
> 
> Let me know if you liked it with kudos or comments! they give me life.
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](https://wanderingbandurria.tumblr.com/) where you can leave prompts for me - I also post some extra content, including some ficlets!


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